Didier Wolff-Air Lines Aircraft Livery Design

At Design Interviews

Interview with DIDIER WOLFF : Frank Scott: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?. DIDIER WOLFF : To create the most complexe design ever painted onto an aircraft. .Frank Scott: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?. DIDIER WOLFF : Keep the client&#039;s desire within the project along with making it a challenge to achieve. .Frank Scott: What are your future plans for this award winning design?. DIDIER WOLFF : Air to Air video and photo shoot. .Frank Scott: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?. DIDIER WOLFF : A little over 3 months .Frank Scott: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?. DIDIER WOLFF : This design was commissioned by our client, based on a ceramic tile which only a certain rhythm and colors remain in the final realization. .Frank Scott: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?. DIDIER WOLFF : No, each of my creations are unique, original and for 1 aircraft only. .Frank Scott: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?. DIDIER WOLFF : None .Frank Scott: Who is the target customer for his design?. DIDIER WOLFF : Private jet owners .Frank Scott: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?. DIDIER WOLFF : The complexity of its application onto the aircraft and the amount of details. .Frank Scott: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?. DIDIER WOLFF : The usual computer graphic softwares (Maya, Mental Ray, Photoshop &amp; Illustrator) .Frank Scott: What is the most unique aspect of your design?. DIDIER WOLFF : Triple overlaying of a complete fading effect. .Frank Scott: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?. DIDIER WOLFF : Once the design was created and validated, we have worked with the most skilled painters for each of the very technical painting challenges. Most particularly with Walter Maurer &amp; Martin Dipell (Walter Maurer was also an artistic partner of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Frank Stella.) .Frank Scott: What is the role of technology in this particular design?. DIDIER WOLFF : Essential, as its painting onto the aircraft has required a mixed of ancient and very modern tools to overcome each technical challenges that the design raised and most of all a lot of creativity. .Frank Scott: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?. DIDIER WOLFF : Main Challenges were encountered in production phase, going from the 3D Design Livery Project to the scale 1 aircraft. Quadruple stripping from the front door to the last window adjusted with Lasers, masking, de-masking and re-masking for the application of the 5 colors. From the last window to the back cone, each stripe had to face the cylindric imperfections, adjusted one by one, cm by cm and correcting each imperfection to render the natural feeling of perfect alignment. Critical zones as the engine pylons and the last meter of the back cone took an entire team and days of adjustments to meet validation. The engine nacelles shape was the hardest technical challenge in order to render the space between the lines properly. All of these technical issues had to be overcome within a strict dead line of 6 weeks and timelines of 72 hours maximum between each paint applications in order to comply with the products constraints. The fading effect on the 4 main colors, one after the other, had to be performed with the same precision from both sides of the aircraft simultaneously from the two expert teams, at the same rhythm, with the same technical hand movement. Finally, the mandatory security technical markings on the aircraft had to be deformed, resized, adapted in order to comply with the aeronautical regulation and the aesthetic aspect of the design. .Frank Scott: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?. DIDIER WOLFF : This design is so unique and is the first of its kind in the aeronautical industry in terms of complexity that it is a natural desire to have it recognized by the artistic community. .Frank Scott: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?. DIDIER WOLFF : Never compromise with your creation. .Frank Scott: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?. DIDIER WOLFF : It required a lot of trust and open mind from the aircraft owner to make this design possible, we are extremely thankful for this. .